The Missouri Compromise attempted to assuage tensions arising from the spread of slavery into new territories applying for statehood. Southern politicians assumed that slavery could spread unhindered while their Northern colleagues saw how the spread of slavery would upset the balance of free and slave states in the Union. A compromise was reached when Henry Clay recommended that Missouri enter as a slave state and Maine enter as a free state; additionally, slavery would be banned north of the 36º 30’ latitude (excluding Missouri). While the Missouri Compromise settled the matter of slavery's expansion, it did not solve the issue of slavery in the United States and would later be repealed by the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.